(1904-1936) Soviet writer
Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky was born in the Ukrainian village of Viliya in Volhynia. The father of the future writer worked as a maltmaker at a local brewery. Since this work provided only seasonal earnings, practically all family members, including children, had to work. Kolya was the youngest, fifth child in the family. At the age of six, he was sent to a parochial school, from which he graduated four years later with a certificate of merit.
When did the first World War, Nikolai had to quit his studies and, together with his father, do day work. Only at the end of 1914 was he able to enter the city's two-year school. However, six months later, Nikolai Ostrovsky was expelled for violating discipline.
Like many other teenagers, with the outbreak of the war, Nikolai tries to flee to the front. But both attempts fail. He was detained and sent back to his parents. From September 1915 began working life Nicholas. He works as a cube-maker at the Shepetovka station, where his family has moved by that time, and then, together with his brother, gets a job at a local power plant. With the help of a power plant engineer, Nikolai soon passes a qualifying exam and becomes an electrician's assistant. From that time he began to participate in revolutionary activities.
Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky joins the local cell of the Bolshevik Party, performs various tasks. In 1918, he decides to continue his education and enters the city elementary school. He is accepted immediately into the second class, and two years later he finishes the course, again receiving a certificate of merit.
In May 1919, a revolutionary committee was organized in Shepetovka, and Nikolai Ostrovsky from the very first days became the head of the local Komsomol organization. In the autumn of 1919, together with other Komsomol members, he was mobilized into the Red Army and sent to a division commanded by G. Kotovsky. Later Nicholas Ostrovsky is transferred to the propaganda department of the First Cavalry Army. But he did not serve long, because a few months later he was seriously wounded in a battle near Korosten. After leaving the hospital, Ostrovsky is demobilized, since he is almost completely blind in one eye. Nevertheless, he continues to work, first in Shepetovka, and then in Kyiv. At the same time, Nikolai Ostrovsky began to study at an electrical school, but was soon forced to leave work, because due to the consequences of the injury, he began to ossify his joints.
A nineteen-year-old youth finds himself in a state of almost complete immobility. But he doesn't want to hear about retirement. By the end of the year physical exercises help him regain his strength, and he again returns to Komsomol work. Nikolai Ostrovsky is sent to Western Ukraine, where he becomes the head of one of the city committees. But the disease did not recede and even progressed. The sanatorium treatment and the surgical operation carried out in Kharkov only slightly slowed down the inevitable onset of the disease.
From the beginning of 1928, Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky was bedridden. He settles in Novorossiysk with friends of his mother. Soon their daughter becomes his wife. With all his might, Nikolai strives to return to work and for this he enters the correspondence school named after Sverdlov. In addition, he begins to write. In six months, he completes a story about the Kotovsky brigade, based on autobiographical material. But the manuscript disappeared on its way to the reviewer. However, Ostrovsky continues to work and four years later finishes the first book of the novel How the Steel Was Tempered.
The novel is based on the life experiences of the author, and not only the image of the protagonist, but also some other characters are easily recognizable. real prototypes. Nikolai Ostrovsky sends the manuscript to the Young Guard magazine, and it gets reviewed by the writer A. Karavaeva.
After their joint editing, the novel was published in the magazine, and soon came out and separate edition. He immediately brings Ostrovsky fame, because his hero is the best suited to the needs of the time. In numerous articles by critics, the image of Pavel Korchagin is considered as a standard goodie in literature socialist realism. Encouraged by the warm reception of the novel, the young writer creates a sequel. This book also sells out within a few days.
The novel is filmed and translated into almost all languages of the peoples of the USSR. The fees received gave Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky the opportunity to settle in Sochi and continue his sanatorium treatment. As a result, the development of the disease was again slowed down. However, another misfortune lay in wait for him: blindness inevitably grows. But, even having completely lost his sight, Ostrovsky does not stop working on a new novel, Born by the Storm, for a day. It was not finished, but the first part he wrote turned out to be much weaker than the first novel. This novel was even considered secondary, since many situations were repeated in it and the characters seemed more schematic.
In spite of serious illness, Nikolai Ostrovsky leads a huge community service, receives in his house writers who rested in Sochi sanatoriums. Several times he comes to Moscow. In 1934 he was accepted as a member of the Writers' Union.
The novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" was published in translations into the main European languages. True, a slightly different perception of the work should be noted here. The novel evoked favorable reviews, because many admired the fate of its author. In particular, he wrote about this French writer André Gide, who visited Ostrovsky in Sochi.
The disease continued to progress, and in 1936 Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky died. Now in his house there is a museum of the writer.
110 years ago a famous Soviet writer was born
Nikolai Ostrovsky is a legendary man. A serious illness at the age of 23 bedridden him, and at 25 he became blind. It seemed that life was over. But Ostrovsky took up literary work- wrote the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered". And at the age of 31 he became famous all over the world.
O little known facts life of the writer "FACTS" told head of department of the State Museum humanitarian center"Overcoming" the name N. A. Ostrovsky , Honored Worker of Culture of Russia Tamara Andronova, author of the forthcoming scientific biography Nikolai Ostrovsky "Too little left to live ...".
“This book is the first attempt to recreate the true biography of Nikolai Ostrovsky,” says Tamara Andronova. - After all, earlier biographers intertwined his life with the biography of the hero of the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered” Pavel Korchagin. It was said that Nikolai Ostrovsky came from a poor working-class family, had a "lower" education, like his Pavka. In fact, Nikolai Alekseevich was born in Volyn in the family of a hereditary military officer, non-commissioned officer tsarist army. They had a big house, land, servants ... In a word, they lived in abundance. The family was a believer, among the relatives were priests.
- What other facts of the writer's biography were previously presented not quite reliably?
- For example, the participation of Nikolai Ostrovsky in the Civil War. In 1919 - 1920, as documents confirm, he was not at the front, but studied at the Shepetovka Unified Labor School. Moreover, he brilliantly finished it in 1921. Memory and abilities were exceptional. When the Civil War ended, Nikolai was only 16 years old - the age of the draft. Perhaps he joined the Red Army soldiers who stood near Shepetovka. This is evidenced by some memoirs of contemporaries. But it was sporadically, most likely in the summer, during the holidays. Already in school years he began to show the first signs of illness. The disease turned out to be serious - ossification of the joints. At the age of 18, Nikolai learned that the disease was incurable - complete immobility awaited him.
*Tamara Andronova: “Ostrovsky suffered immeasurably more than the lot of the hero of his novel Pavka Korchagin” (photo by the author)
It was the collapse of all hopes. Hopelessness, despair, constantly tormented by the question of why to live, lead him to the idea of committing suicide. Nikolai shot himself in the chest with a Browning gun. This fact of Ostrovsky's biography has also been hushed up until now. The bullet damaged his lung, but he survived. And he decided that since fate had left him in this world, then it was not just like that, but for something. Why, of course, he did not yet know. “Know how to live, and when life becomes unbearable, make it useful,” he would later write in How the Steel Was Tempered. And he strove not just to exist - to eat, drink, breathe, but to make his life useful for society.
“The most precious thing for a person is life. It is given to him once and it is necessary to live it in such a way that it is not excruciatingly painful for the aimlessly lived years ”- these lines from the novel“ How the Steel Was Tempered ”became life credo of many people.
- Ostrovsky lived his life in accordance with these words. Fate measured the writer only 32 years old. Nine of them he was bedridden. But he was not paralyzed, as was sometimes erroneously written in his biography. A paralyzed person does not feel his body, and Nikolai almost constantly felt hellish pain in all its parts. “In the mornings,” the writer’s wife Raisa recalled, “we saw his swollen, bitten lips and knew that these were signs of a struggle with inhuman pain.” The writer's blind eyes also hurt. Do you see those black curtains on the windows of the room where Ostrovsky spent his last year of his life? (We are talking in the museum-apartment of the writer at 14 Tverskaya St. in Moscow. — Auth.). The light was irritating to his eyes. Even the lampshade was covered with a red cloth. But this bed actually became the workplace of the writer .
The novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" Nikolai Ostrovsky wrote, being motionless and completely blind. Next to the bed is a chair and a sofa for visitors. After the release of the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered", he had a huge number of them. This room has been visited by many famous people, including Mikhail Sholokhov, Alexander Fadeev, Vsevolod Meyerhold and his wife, actress Zinaida Reich, there were guests from abroad. After all, even during the life of the writer, the novel was published in Japan, Czechoslovakia, printed in a weekly newspaper in New York, prepared for publication in France, the USA, Holland ... English journalists, having come to Ostrovsky, admitted that at first they did not believe that a person in such able to write a novel, they thought it was a myth behind which a brigade of experienced propagandist writers was hiding. But they were forced to admit that Ostrovsky in in a certain sense- genius.
- And indeed it is. The way the work was created is on the verge of fantasy and heroism.
- Yes, the idea to write a book matured when the fingers still retained a little mobility, but the eyes no longer saw anything. How to write? Ostrovsky came up with a special device - a "transparent". AT title page parallel cuts were made in the clerical folder so that the lines did not run into one another. A sheet of paper was inserted into the folder. And Ostrovsky wrote. He wrote with pencils that were sharpened for him in in large numbers. In the morning, relatives collected the sheets that had been written during the night and scattered on the floor. It was difficult to decipher what was written. But thanks phenomenal memory Ostrovsky restored the text himself, everything up to last word. Written retyped on a typewriter. But it became more and more difficult to write himself every day, so the main part of the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered” was created under his dictation.
- In an apartment on Tverskaya, which he was already given as an author famous novel, Nikolai Alekseevich spent the last year of his life, continues Tamara Andronova. “Before that, his living conditions were very difficult. In Moscow, where in 1929 he came with the hope of a cure, since there were the best specialists in the country, he and his wife occupied half a room in a communal apartment. Here the first part of the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" was created. He wrote mainly at night, when the noise around him subsided. In general, he worked 15 hours a day.
Of course, neither Ostrovsky himself nor his family could have imagined that this work would receive world recognition. They rejoiced at the fact that he was busy, that he was somehow distracted from his illness. Into what will happen interesting book, Galya Alekseeva, a neighbor in a communal apartment, fervently believed, who wrote down the first part of the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered” under Ostrovsky’s dictation, and worked completely disinterestedly.
- I read that most of all Ostrovsky was afraid of loneliness.
Yes, he loved the conversation. At school, he was always the leader. Then he talked a lot, finding himself in the thick of Komsomol life. By the way, people were attracted to him like a magnet. After the release of the novel How the Steel Was Tempered, there was so much communication that, as he wrote, his life was filled to the brim. Big role this was played by the essay of the journalist Mikhail Koltsov "Courage", published in the newspaper "Pravda" on March 17, 1935. Thanks to the publication, the author received official recognition, and millions of readers of the novel learned that the work is largely autobiographical, and the prototype of its hero is the author himself.
Soon after the essay was published, Nikolai Ostrovsky was given an apartment in the very center of Moscow, where they created all the conditions for work, and allocated a car. In Sochi, where he was treated for many years, a house was built especially for the writer. Now Ostrovsky, who formerly lived in a very difficult conditions(sometimes there was not even a piece of black bread in the house), he received a decent pension, and from the publishers where the novel was printed, they began to send him royalties. And he generously began to give gifts to relatives and friends who supported him in every possible way throughout his life. October 1, 1935 Nikolai Ostrovsky was awarded the highest award country - the Order of Lenin. In the last year of his life, he felt very happy, in demand. And after completing work on the second part of the novel How the Steel Was Tempered, he began writing a new book, Born by the Storm.
- How did Nikolai Ostrovsky meet his wife Raisa?
- They met at a time when Nikolai was still walking, albeit with a stick. Engaged in Komsomol work. Handsome, smart - he could not help but like. The disease attacked mercilessly, but Raisa believed in her husband's recovery. After the death of Nikolai Ostrovsky, she headed the museum in Moscow for many years, popularizing his life and work.
In 1936 Nikolai Ostrovsky was visited by the famous French writer, laureate Nobel Prize Andre Gide. About visit Soviet Union he wrote in his book "Return from the USSR", in which he sharply criticized the Soviet system. But he admired the courage of Nikolai Alekseevich, devoting a separate chapter to him, in which he wrote: “If we were not in the USSR, I would say:“ This is a saint. Here is clear evidence that it is not only religion that produces saints.”
Bowed before Ostrovsky and another French writer, Nobel Prize winner Romain Rolland. In a letter to Ostrovsky, he wrote: “I admire you with love and delight. Rest assured that if you have known dark days in your life, it itself will be a source of light for many thousands of people ... You will remain for the world a beneficial, uplifting example of the victory of the spirit over the betrayal of individual destiny.
The writer has surpassed his hero in many ways. According to Nikolai Alekseevich, if he described his life, readers would not believe it, deciding that he went too far. Ostrovsky suffered immeasurably more than Pavka Korchagin. Terrible, unbearable pain for many years, countless operations ... But he never complained.
- I wonder if the writer was familiar with Stalin?
- Not. But Ostrovsky wrote to Stalin thank you letter when he was awarded the Order of Lenin. At the end of the letter, he expressed regret that he would not be able to participate in the battles ahead in the fight against fascism.
Did he really foresee the war in 1935?
Yes, back in 1934 Nikolai Ostrovsky said that the war against fascism was inevitable. He predicted many things in his life. When the doctors predicted that he had about a week left to live, he said: "No, I'll still live - at least a year." And so it happened. Lived exactly one year.
Nikolai Ostrovsky
Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky (1904-1936) - Soviet writer.
At 24, Nikolai Ostrovsky lost his sight and the ability to move.
Despite the popularity of the published in 1932-1934. novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" Nikolai Ostrovsky did not become a member of the Writers' Union. In 1936, he was enrolled in the Political Directorate of the Red Army with the rank of brigade commissar. This corresponded both to Ostrovsky's personal aspirations and to the attitude of the authorities towards his book.
To what extent the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" is the life of Nikolai Ostrovsky and how reliable the information about the writer's life is the questions of biographers and literary critics. The main thing is his testament to youth:
"The most precious thing for a person is life. It is given to him once, and he must live it so that, dying, he could say: all life and all strength were given to the most beautiful thing in the world - the struggle for the liberation of mankind."
People who are not able to live a normal life, start a family and build a country in which people would just like to live, taught the youth to give their lives "to the struggle for the liberation of mankind."
"How steel was tempered" by Nikolai Ostrovsky
The loftiness and romance of Nikolai Ostrovsky's words about the "liberation of mankind" disappears when they are concretized. The class approach indicated who was not subject to "liberation". Even the family of the once beloved girl fell into the category of "undercut bourgeois".
The rest, who are outside the party, did not arouse sympathy in Nikolai Ostrovsky either. In the mid 1920s. his hero wrote from the hospital that he wanted to return as soon as possible "to the army in the field, .. where the iron avalanche of the assault is unfolding." The active army is the party. True, there were also enemies in the party who wrongly liberated humanity.
In the struggle for the "liberation of mankind" the fans of freedom have failed. Or maybe they didn’t fight for her?
Pavel Korchagin - the consecration of the idea
The book "How the Steel Was Tempered" gained popularity thanks to the figure of Pavka Korchagin, who, in blindness and immobility, remained true to the ideals of youth. In the minds of readers, the novel about Pavel Korchagin was perceived as the life of Nikolai Ostrovsky himself. There was a combination of the idea of "liberation of mankind" with a living martyr for the idea, which contributed to its introduction to the masses. On the long years the country became blind and immobile - hardened like steel. Stalin became its leader.
Life is given to a person not so that he gives it, but in order to live ... By the way, a long time ago there was a person with the same tragic fate like Nikolai Ostrovsky. His name is Ivan Kozlov. Having lost his sight and became motionless, he began to write poetry. It is not at all necessary to become a fanatic of an idea in order to remain human.
Ostrovsky's biography
- 1904. September 16 (September 29) - in the village of Viliya, Volyn province, son Nikolai was born in the family of a non-commissioned officer and excise official Alexei Ivanovich Ostrovsky.
- 1913. Nikolai Ostrovsky graduated from the parochial school with a certificate of merit. Family moving to Shepetivka.
- 1915. Studying in a two-year school.
- 1916. Work, in parallel with his studies, in the kitchen of a station restaurant, as a cube-maker, a warehouse worker, an assistant to a stoker at a power plant.
- 1917. Studying at the higher elementary school until 1919
- 1918. Rapprochement with the Bolsheviks. During the German occupation, Nikolai Ostrovsky was a liaison officer of the Shepetovsky Revolutionary Committee.
- 1919. July 20 - joining the Komsomol. Nikolai Ostrovsky: "Together with the Komsomol ticket, we received a gun and two hundred rounds of ammunition." August 9 - went to the front as a volunteer. Fought in the cavalry brigade G.I. Kotovsky and in the 1st Cavalry Army.
- 1920. August - a severe wound in the back near Lvov and demobilization. Participation in the fight against the insurgent movement in special forces (CHON). According to some sources, in 1920-1921. Ostrovsky was an employee of the Cheka in Izyaslav.
- 1921. Work as an assistant electrician in the Kyiv main workshops, study at an electrical college. At the same time secretary of the Komsomol organization.
- 1922. Participation in the construction of a railway line for the delivery of firewood to Kyiv. Typhoid. After recovery, he was commissioner of the Vsevobuch battalion in Berezdovo.
- 1924. Ostrovsky - secretary of the district committee of the Komsomol in Berezdovo and Izyaslav, then - secretary of the district committee of the Komsomol in Shepetovka. Joining the CPSU (b).
- 1927. Serious illness. By official version disease is the result of an injury. Modern doctors, on the basis of preserved data, suggested that the disease was hereditary. Autumn - Ostrovsky began to write autobiographical novel"The Tale of the Cats". Six months later, the manuscript was lost in transit.
- 1930. After unsuccessful treatment in a sanatorium, Ostrovsky settled in Sochi. The end of the year is the beginning of writing the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered".
- 1932. Publication of the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" in the magazine "Young Guard". The novel is published as a separate book.
- 1934. The final edition of the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered".
- 1935. Ostrovsky was awarded the Order of Lenin. The writer was presented with a house in Sochi and an apartment in Moscow on Tverskaya.
- 1936. Enrollment in the Political Directorate of the Red Army with the rank of brigade commissar: "Now I have returned to duty along this line, which is very important for a citizen of the Republic." Writing the novel Stormborne. December 22 - Nikolai Ostrovsky died in Moscow.
Films based on Ostrovsky
Ostrovsky in Moscow
- Gusyatnikov, 3. In apartment 25 at M.Ya. Purin in 1926 was stopped by Nikolai Ostrovsky.
- Kpopotkinsky, 12. In 1930, N. Ostrovsky lived in this house. The first part of the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" was written here.
- Novospassky, 5. Children's Library No. 86 named after N.A. Ostrovsky.
- Pavlovsky 3rd, 14. Library No. 18 named after Nikolai Ostrovsky.
- Prechistensky lane. In 1937-1991. lane N.A. Ostrovsky, who lived here in house number 12 from the spring of 1930 to the summer of 1932.
- Svobody, 45. Children's Library No. 136 named after N.A. Ostrovsky.
- Agricultural 2nd passage, 2. Special boarding school No. 5. A monument-bust of N.A. Ostrovsky.
- Tverskaya, 14 In 1935-1936. N.A. lived in an apartment on the second floor. Ostrovsky. In 1940, a museum named after Nikolai Ostrovsky was created in it. In 1992 it was renamed to State Museum"Overcoming" named after N.A. Ostrovsky.
- Pavel Korchagin street. Named in 1965 in honor of the protagonist of Nikolai Ostrovsky's novel "How the Steel Was Tempered".
Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky (1904-1936) - prose writer and playwright Ukrainian origin, author of the novel How the Steel Was Tempered. From 1924 he was a member of the CPSU. During the war, the writer was injured, he was almost blind. In spite of difficult fate, he continued to create and help people. Nikolay struggled with numerous diseases, constantly improved his skills and endured pain every day. This man died too soon, but his creative legacy continues to live. His strong character is an example for many contemporaries.
Childhood and education
The future writer was born on September 29, 1904 in the village of Viliya, located in the Volyn province. His father, Alexey Ivanovich, participated in the war with the Turks, distinguished himself in the battle near Shipka. For this, the non-commissioned officer was awarded two St. George's crosses. In peacetime, he worked at a distillery as a malt worker. Nikolai's mother, Olga Osipovna, worked all her life as a cook.
The family had two more daughters, Nadezhda and Ekaterina. They began to work in rural school teachers. The parents had little money, but they lived together, instilled in their children a love of work and a craving for knowledge. Thanks to his outstanding abilities, Kolya was able to enter the parochial school ahead of schedule. Already at the age of nine he received a certificate and a certificate of merit.
When the boy finished school, his family moved to Shepetivka. There Ostrovsky entered a two-year school. In 1915, his studies were completed, and he had to go to work. The family was constantly short of money, so Kolya worked as a cube-maker, stoker and assistant in the kitchen of the station restaurant.
In 1918, the young man entered the Higher Primary School, which later turned into the Unified Labor School. During his studies, he became close to the Bolsheviks, participated in the struggle for power of the Soviets. During the period of the German occupation, the prose writer was engaged in underground activities, was a liaison officer of the Revolutionary Committee from 1918 to 1919. He also represented the students in the pedagogical council.
Participation in the war
The prose writer has always been fascinated by revolutionary ideals. In July 1919, he joined the Komsomol, having received a ticket and a gun with cartridges. The very next month he became a volunteer at the front. The young man served in the cavalry brigade of Kotovsky and the cavalry army of Budyonny.
In August 1920, during the battle near Lvov, Nikolai was seriously wounded by shrapnel. First, he fell off his horse at full gallop, then received several shots in the head and stomach. Despite the grave state of health, the revolutionary wanted to return to the war. However, he was demobilized and sent back to the village.
Ostrovsky refused to sit idle even after the injury. He worked on recovery National economy, served in bodies of the Cheka while fighting local bandits. Later, the young man moved to Kyiv, where he became an electrician's assistant, worked part-time at a construction site. In parallel with this, in 1921, Nikolai studied at the electrical college.
In 1922, the prose writer took part in the construction of a railway line for the delivery of firewood. Once he spent several hours in cold water, saving timber rafting. After that, Ostrovsky became very ill. At first, he developed rheumatism, later Nikolai also caught typhus.
In 1923-1924. the writer becomes the military commissar of Vseobuch. Later he was invited to the post of secretary of the Komsomol Committee in Berezdovo, and then in Izyaslavl. In 1924, Ostrovsky was officially admitted to the Communist Party, at the same time his illness began to develop into paralysis.
Creative activity
Even in his youth, Nikolai was addicted to reading. He liked the novels of Cooper and Scott, Voynich and Giovagnoli. Nicholas respected the heroes of these books, who always fought for their rights and freedoms against the tyranny of the government. Also among his favorite authors were Bryusov, Rotterdamsky, Dumas and Jules Verne.
In parallel with reading, Ostrovsky himself began to write. But he came to grips with this only in the mid-20s, trying to pass the time in the hospital. The prose writer was supported in everything by his old friend Raisa Porfirievna Matsyuk. They became very close, soon began dating and got married.
Since 1927, Nikolai was bedridden. At that time, he had already been diagnosed with progressive Bechterew's disease. A little later, doctors also discovered ankylosing polyarthritis, a gradual ossification of the joints. The writer spent most time in hospitals, he underwent several operations, but he still refused to calmly wait for death. Instead, Ostrovsky began to read even more, graduated from the correspondence department of the Sverdlovsk Communist University.
last years of life
In the autumn of 1927, the prose writer sent the manuscript of his autobiography "The Tale of the Kotovites" to his comrades in Odessa. But the book got lost on the way back, her further fate could not be traced. Nikolai stoically accepted this news, he continued to write. In 1929, Ostrovsky completely lost his sight. After unsuccessful treatment in a sanatorium, he decided to move to Sochi, and then to Moscow.
Blindness made the writer think about suicide for the first time in his life. But he did not want to stop fighting, so he invented a special stencil. With his help, he wrote new book"As the Steel Was Tempered". Often the stencil was not enough, so the prose writer dictated texts to his relatives, friends, neighbors and even his nine-year-old niece.
Editors from the Young Guard magazine criticized Ostrovsky's new work. But he got a second review, and for good reason. When the novel was published in a magazine, he enjoyed incredible success among readers. There were huge queues in the libraries, it was simply impossible to get a book. In 1933, the complete first part of the novel was published, a sequel was released a few months later.
In 1935, the writer was awarded the Lenin Order. He also received an apartment in Moscow, and on the Black Sea coast they began to build a house for Ostrovsky. Then he was awarded military rank Brigadier Commissar. The prose writer was very proud of this, he worked most of the time, trying to justify the trust of readers. But on December 22, 1936, Nikolai Alekseevich's heart stopped.
In 1936 it was released last composition Ostrovsky, the novel "Born by the Storm". The prose writer did not have time to finish this work, which told about the Civil War in Western Ukraine. He did not like the “artificiality” of the resulting book, so Nikolai repeatedly rewrote scenes from it.
Life and are heroic pages in the biography of a person who has experienced severe trials.
A family
Writer Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky (1904 - 1936) was born in the Ukrainian village of Viliya in a family of hereditary military men. Grandfather, Ivan Vasilyevich Ostrovsky, was a non-commissioned officer, the hero of the battle of 1855 on the Malakhov Hill during the defense of Sevastopol. The years of the life of Ostrovsky Ivan Vasilievich are inextricably linked with the heroic past Russia XIX century.
Father, Alexei Ivanovich Ostrovsky, is also a retired non-commissioned officer of the tsarist army. He was awarded for courage in the capture of Shipka and Plevna. The years of Ivanovich's life were the pride of his son.
Nikolai's mother, a Czech by nationality, was a cheerful and witty woman, the soul of the company. The family lived in abundance, kept servants, the house was always full of guests.
Childhood
Little Kolya surprised those around him with his abilities. At the age of 9, he graduated from a parochial school and was going to study further, but fate decreed otherwise. In 1914, my father was left without work, and life collapsed overnight. The house had to be sold, the family dispersed. Alexey Ivanovich, together with Kolya, went to relatives in Ternopil, where he contracted to work as a forester.
Nikolai himself, and whose work is striking in its diversity, got a job as an assistant barmaid at the railway station in the city of Shepetovka, and a year later he began working as an electrician. In September 1918, the young man entered the Shepetovka Primary School, which he successfully completed in 1920.
Youth
A number of major global shocks have been attributed to young Nicholas Ostrovsky: World War I, then February Revolution 1917, followed by October Revolution and the civil war, which ended in Ukraine only in 1920. Power was constantly changing in Shepetovka, the Germans were inferior to the White Poles, who, in turn, were forced out by the Red Army, then the White Guards came, after them the Petliurists. The peaceful inhabitants of Shepetovka were haunted by numerous gangs that robbed and killed.
At the school, Nikolai Ostrovsky was a leader, he was delegated by students in 1921, the activist passed the exams and received a matriculation certificate. In the same year, Ostrovsky joined the Komsomol, and in the fall he became a student. evening department Kyiv College of Electromechanics. Nikolai went to work in his specialty, an electrician. The life and work of Ostrovsky during his student days served as a model for those around him.
Hunger and cold
If you describe the life and work of Ostrovsky briefly, then it will still be an interesting, meaningful story about a strong-willed, purposeful person. Were going heavy post-war years, devastation reigned in the country, there was not enough food, coal, medicines. Students of the technical school, including Nikolai Ostrovsky, began to prepare firewood in order to somehow provide the freezing Kyiv with heat. In addition, students built railway line, through which it was possible to carry harvested firewood to the city. Soon Ostrovsky caught a cold and took to his bed. AT serious condition he was sent home, where he lay for several months. It is difficult to briefly describe the life and work of Ostrovsky, this is a guide to life for entire generations on how to overcome difficulties.
In the end, the disease receded, and Nikolai returned to study and work. At that time, the technical school was transformed into an institute, but Ostrovsky did not have time to become a student at the university, as the disease again crippled him. Since future writer became a regular patient of hospitals, sanatoriums, clinics and dispensaries. I had to leave my studies, the eighteen-year-old boy was threatened with a hospital bed for an indefinite period.
In 1922, the worst fears of doctors and Nikolai Ostrovsky himself came true, he was given terrible diagnosis- Bechterew's disease. This meant complete immobility, pain and suffering, which a few years later, with penetrating psychological depth, the writer will be able to convey through the image of the hero of the novel How the Steel Was Tempered by Pavka Korchagin. The work reflects facts from the life of Ostrovsky, traces the biography of the writer himself. The persistence of Pavel Korchagin's character is a direct analogy with the author of the novel.
Komsomol work
A brief outline of the life and work of Ostrovsky allows us to reveal the nature of this courageous man. Gradually, Nikolai's legs fail, he moves with difficulty, leaning on a cane. Besides left leg stopped bending. In 1923, Ostrovsky moved to his sister in the city of Berezdov and there became the secretary of the regional Komsomol organization. A wide field awaited him vigorous activity in the field of propaganda of communist ideals. Ostrovsky devoted all his time to meetings with young people in remote areas, he managed to captivate young men and women with stories about a brighter future. The efforts of the activist were rewarded, Komsomol cells arose in the most distant villages, young people enthusiastically helped their leader to implement the communist ideology. The life and work of Ostrovsky as a Komsomol leader became a role model for many of his young followers.
The year 1924 was a turning point for Ostrovsky, he joined the ranks of the Communist Party. At the same time, he became a participant in the fight against banditry, his membership in the CHON (special purpose unit) became another area of activity for the tireless fighter for the ideals of universal equality. The life and work of Ostrovsky in the troubled years for the country were an example of selflessness. Nikolai Ostrovsky treated himself ruthlessly, he did not spare himself. He regularly traveled to operations to destroy enemies, did not sleep at night. Then came the reckoning, health deteriorated sharply. The work had to be abandoned, a long period of recovery began.
Hospitals, sanatorium treatment
The review of Ostrovsky's life and work continues with a period in which he will be intensively treated. For two years, from 1924 to 1926, Nikolai Ostrovsky was at the Kharkov Medical and Mechanical Institute, where he underwent a course of treatment followed by rehabilitation. Despite the efforts of doctors, there was no improvement. However, at that time, Nikolai made many new friends, the first of which was Pyotr Novikov, a faithful like-minded person who would be next to Ostrovsky to the end.
In 1926, Nikolai moved to Evpatoria, a city in the western part of Crimean peninsula. There he will undergo a course of treatment at the Mainaki sanatorium. In the Crimea, Ostrovsky met Innokenty Pavlovich Fedenev and Alexandra Alekseevna Zhigareva, people of high ideals, who were called "Bolsheviks of the old school." New acquaintances will play a huge role in the life of the writer, they will become his second parents. Innokenty Fedenev will be the closest friend of the writer, his colleague in the affairs of the ideology of communism. Alexandra Zhigareva will become a "second mother". The life and work of Nikolai Ostrovsky has since been inextricably linked with these people. Faithful friends will never leave him.
Life in Novorossiysk
The further chronology of Ostrovsky's life and work is his stay in Krasnodar Territory, on the Black Sea coast. Following the recommendations of doctors, Nikolai remains to live in the south. He moves to his maternal relatives, the Matsyuk family, in Novorossiysk. He will live with them for two years, from 1926 to 1928. Health continues to deteriorate, Ostrovsky can no longer walk, moves on crutches. All the time he devotes to reading books, which become the main part of his life. Nikolai's favorite author is Maxim Gorky, followed by the classics of Russian literature: Gogol, Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy.
Ostrovsky's special attention is drawn to the topic civil war, he tries to understand the root causes of the events of that time, when a brother killed a brother, and a father killed a son. The works "Chapaev" by Furmanov, "Cities and Years" by Fedin, "The Iron Stream" by Serafimovich, "Commissars" by Libedinsky were read in one breath.
In 1927, from which Nikolai Ostrovsky suffered, reaches its culmination, complete paralysis of the legs sets in. He can no longer walk, even on crutches. Exhausting pains do not stop for a minute. Since that time, Nikolai has been bedridden. Reading books is a little distraction from physical suffering, literature is brought every day by librarians, who also become Ostrovsky's close friends. An outlet for the patient becomes a radio receiver, which at least somehow, but connects him with the outside world.
At the very end of 1927, Nikolai Ostrovsky entered the correspondence department of the Yakov Sverdlov Communist University, and this event became a real happiness for him. Friends receive a joyful message: "Studying! In absentia! Lying!" Life for the hopelessly ill Ostrovsky takes on meaning.
And then a new misfortune happens - an eye disease. While this is only inflammation, but soon there will be a loss of vision. Doctors categorically forbade reading, so as not to tire the eyes. What to do, how to live now!?
Apartment in Sochi
The seriously ill Nikolai Ostrovsky had a wife, Raisa Porfirievna, whom he met in Novorossiysk. Friends are trying in every possible way to help the young family, thanks to the efforts of Alexandra Zhigareva, the Ostrovskys are provided with an apartment in Sochi. It is possible to collect a certain amount of money, life gradually began to improve. However, Nikolai's health continued to deteriorate, his musculoskeletal functions were almost completely lost, and the process became irreversible. Vision also weakened, every day it was more and more difficult to read even large letters. Hours of rest restored vision for a short time, but the slightest strain of the eyes again caused a blackout. General state Ostrovsky's health was catastrophic, there was no hope for recovery. Friends were constantly nearby, and only this gave strength to the patient.
Moscow period
Biography of Ostrovsky, life and work came out on new stage in October 1929, when Nikolai and his wife came to Moscow for an eye operation. Despite the fact that he was placed in the best clinic with Professor M. Averbakh, general inflammatory processes throughout the body caused a negative reaction. The operation failed.
Life in a Moscow communal apartment further exacerbated serious disease Ostrovsky. His wife left for work, and he was left all alone. It was then that he decided to write a book. The body was motionless, and the soul was eager for self-expression. Fortunately, the hands retained mobility, but Nikolai could no longer see. Then he came up with a special device, the so-called "transparency", thanks to which it was possible to write blindly. The lines were lined up in even rows, the page was written easily, it was only necessary to change the sheets written on with clean ones in time.
The beginning of creativity
The stages of Ostrovsky's life and work characterize him as a stubborn person who was not broken by any trials. Diseases only strengthened his inflexibility of will. Nikolai Ostrovsky began to write his first work being a seriously ill, immobilized and blind person. Nevertheless, he managed to create immortal work, which was included in the Golden Fund of Russian Literature. This is the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered".
I wrote well at night, although it was difficult. In the morning, the relatives collected the crumpled sheets scattered on the floor, straightened them and tried to make out what had been written. The process was painful until Ostrovsky began to dictate a text to his loved ones, and they wrote it down. Things immediately went smoothly, there were more than enough people who wanted to work with the writer. In a small room in a Moscow communal apartment, three related families gathered at once, more than ten people.
However, it was not always possible to dictate and immediately write down new text because all the relatives were busy at work. Then Nikolai Ostrovsky asked his flatmate Galya Alekseeva to write down texts for him from dictation. And a smart, educated girl turned out to be an indispensable assistant.
Novel "How the Steel Was Tempered"
The chapters written by Ostrovsky were reprinted and given to Alexandra Zhigareva, who was in Leningrad and was trying to submit the manuscript for publication. However, all her attempts were unsuccessful, the work was read, praised and returned. For Ostrovsky, the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" was the meaning of his whole life, he was worried that the manuscript would not be printed.
In Moscow, Innokenty Pavlovich Fedenev tried to publish the novel, he handed over the manuscript to the publishing house "Young Guard" and waited for the editor's response. After a while, a review followed, which was essentially negative. Fedenev insisted on a second consideration. And then "the ice broke", the manuscript fell into the hands of the writer Mark Kolosov, who carefully read the contents and recommended the novel for publication.
Edition of the novel
The writer Kolosov, together with Anna Karavaeva, editor-in-chief of the Young Guard magazine, edited the manuscript, and the work began to be printed on the pages of the monthly. It was a victory for Nikolai Ostrovsky and his novel How the Steel Was Tempered. They signed an agreement with the writer, he received a fee, life again found meaning.
The work was published in the magazine "Young Guard" in five issues, from April to September 1932. Against the background of the general rejoicing of the family and relatives of the writer, he was upset that the novel was shortened, abolishing several chapters. Formally, the publishers explained this by a shortage of paper, but the author believed that "the book was crippled." However, in the end, Nikolai Ostrovsky resigned himself.
Later, the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" was repeatedly reprinted abroad, the work is considered a classic example of the unbending Russian character. The writer wrote another novel called "Born by the Storm", however, in the words of the author himself, "the work turned out to be insufficient", especially since Ostrovsky did not have to finish it, he died at the age of 36 and was buried on Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
Memory
The periods of Ostrovsky's work are bright pages life path heroic man, over which neither illness nor deep disappointments had power. The writer created only one work, but it was such a grandiose revelation in prose that other authors do not happen in their entire life. long life. Nikolai Ostrovsky and his novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" are forever inscribed in the history of Russian literature.
